My wife, Sue and I live in Lakeville, Minnesota. We have a hangar at the Lakeville (Airlake, KLVN) airport that we keep our '46 Navion in. The hangar is affectionately called "The Sanctuary" by Sue. Guess I spend too much time there.

I've been a licensed pilot since 1984. Sue and I were married in 1989. Sue got her pilots license in 1990. We owned a Grumman Cheetah for a couple of years that we were forced to sell in 1992 after we built our home. The plan was to get back to a position where we could financially justify owning another airplane.

We (I) started looking again in 2000. At that time, Sue said she didn't really want to fly again so I started looking at tail draggers. I went through the usual PA20's, Lacombe's, Stinson's and even a Mustang II (that I didn't fit in). I thought I had found my next airplane, a 150hp PA20. I got all excited about the prospect of having another bird when Sue changed directions and decided she wanted to fly again after all. Women's prerogative, I guess, so the tail dragger was completely out of the equation.

My father in law has owned a 1956 Bonanza since I've been part of the family. I like the plane, fast, retractable and there's something about that V-tail that speaks to me.

Anyways, I went to his airport for a visit. We both sat in the Bonanza and I commented about how tight the cockpit was, I'm 6'4". He then proceeded to go down a fairly long list of mods he had made to move the bench seat back.

We spent the rest of that cold Saturday wandering from hangar to hangar meeting some really nice people and checking out there planes. I don't recall the fellas name but he had a nice A model Navion. I sat in it and my decision had been made for me. I would be a Navion owner!

There was plenty of room and it had a sliding canopy. One of my fond memories of the Cheetah was snickering at the Cessna and Piper drivers as they taxied on hot summer days trying to hold there doors open with a foot or whatever was available just to get a little air. Of course the Cheetah also had a sliding canopy and I very much enjoyed being able to taxi with the convertible top open.

I started looking in Trade-A-Plane for a Navion that met our needs. I came across one in Phoenix, AZ. A 1946 North American Navion with the E185. The plane only had 943 hours! It had the basic IFR panel and fairly decent paint. I went to Phoenix to look at it and bought it a couple of days after I got home. I've changed the plane a little since we got it. New Airtex interior, removed the old adf, navcom and the EGT and cylinder head temp gauges. I've added a second VOR w/gs, Garmin moving map GPS/com, JPI EDM700 engine analyzer, Monroy traffic avoidance and had the engine overhauled. We've put a little over 200 hours on it since we bought it. I still love the plane and can't see myself in anything else!.